Image: A close-up of Asmeret’s face with their eyes closed. End description.

Image: Cat, viewed from the chest-up. His eyes are also closed and he’s no longer wearing a shirt. He’s standing in darkness, and five red fish swim past his head, with white action lines to indicate the movement of water. End description.

Asmeret floated. Their feet barely touched anything. The first time Cat had brought them here, it’d been terrible. Trapped in his body, in a place so violently hostile to surface life- drowning, they were drowning.

It took time for both of them to learn that these visions were different. They were more like traditional dreams, or projections. Cat wasn’t looking through the eyes of any other fledgling; he was himself at the bottom of the sea.

Eyes heavy and undeterred by the salt, skin keeping form under the pressure, organs functioning in spite of the cold. Their breath moved in, out, though there was no sign of it, not even bubbles. The sun’s light didn’t reach this deep, but Asmeret could still see the strange, organic structure they stood on. It was even paler than Cat’s feet as they peered down. But even moreso, Asmeret’s eyes were glued to the exotic animals that surrounded them.

Image: Cat, viewed from the back. He’s completely naked and his face is shrouded in shadow. He is walking along a large, white, root- or branch-like structure. Behind him, the seafloor is gray and black, and it slopes from a drop-off into a flat valley. There are more red fish, bioluminescent deep-sea worms, and the silhouette of a whale in the distance. End description.

The body began to walk, and Cat never lost his way even though neither of them knew where he was going. He was compelled, moving only in sprawling lines across the structure. Marine snow flitted around, illuminated by flashes from bioluminescent sea life. Asmeret was content to let this dream-Cat lead the way while they marveled at every fish that swam by. The body continued to move swiftly. It–he, they–lept and bounded onwards.

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08.13.22
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Greetings from Othercon, it's been really nice so far <3

I'll admit, for a while I've been unhappy with the prologue, so I've gone and re-written it. It still has the same gist (because I figured trying to replace it with anything else would only make things worse) but just... better, hopefully?